


best of eleven

by helsinkibaby



Category: The Mentalist
Genre: F/M, Fictober 2019, Fluff, Het, Pre Relationship, post episode
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-25
Updated: 2019-10-25
Packaged: 2021-01-03 08:28:22
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 560
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21176414
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/helsinkibaby/pseuds/helsinkibaby
Summary: Cho takes Vega to the firing range.





	best of eleven

**Author's Note:**

> For fictober day 25 “I could really eat something”
> 
> Set post “Black Market”

Cho swore it seemed like a good idea at the time. 

Invite Vega to the firing range with him after work. Assess her marksmanship, maybe give her some pointers, some tips, both on shooting a gun and on being an agent. Give her a chance to feel like she was earning his trust, better yet, give her a chance to actually do that. If nothing else, it might actually move her off the subject around the office and they could actually get some work done. 

He wasn’t expecting her to be so good. 

Actually, scratch that. Vega wasn’t just a good shot. She was a great shot. 

As in, better than he was. 

“That... is impressive,” he told her when her first target sheet swooshed towards them, showing a neat cluster of holes, all dead centre mass. 

Vega beamed, ponytail swishing as she looked in his direction. “My dad taught me how to handle a gun when I was thirteen,” she told him. “I’d been talking about law enforcement and the army for years by then; he said if I was going to do it, he wanted to know that I’d been trained properly, not by some knucklehead who barely knew what he was doing.” 

Remembering some of the drill sergeants that he’d been subjected to, Cho chuckled, pretended not to notice the look of absolute shock on her face. “Copy that.” Putting on his ear defenders, he moved into the neighboring lane, making sure Vega was ready before he began firing. 

The resulting pattern on his target was good, but not as good as hers. 

Which, if the impish smile on her face was anything to go by, she knew. 

“Best of three?” she suggested and Cho’s competitive instincts went into high gear - he and Rigsby had once made it all the way to best of thirty seven before the CBI firing range had forced them to leave. 

“It’s on.” 

They got to best of eleven before this firing range closed and she beat him every time. The final time, she raised her hands in the air, did a little shimmy of victory and Cho shook his head as he looked at her, trying to hide the smile on his lips. 

Rigsby had never danced like that. 

And he’d certainly never looked so good doing it. 

The second that thought entered his head, he froze, wondering where the hell it had come from. 

Vega didn’t seem to notice anything amiss, or if she did, she didn’t comment. She did tilt her head, cross her arms over her chest and offer, “Let me know when you want a rematch.” 

“Yeah, yeah,” he muttered, discomfited not because she’d so soundly beaten him but because of the direction his thoughts had taken. “I get it, you’re a dead eye.” 

Vega shrugged as she checked her weapon, looking at it and not him when she said, “You know, I could really eat something right now. And where I come from? The winner usually buys burgers.” 

Cho hesitated, not sure if it was a good idea. Then again, he had to eat and so   
did she. 

“Sure,” he said and if he noticed how her smile got brighter, how her ponytail bobbed a little as she bounced on the balls of her feet, then he didn’t mention it. 

Some things were better left unsaid.


End file.
